NBA President inaugurates committees

Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President Okey Wali (SAN), last week at NBA Secretariat, Abuja, inaugurated three committees that will fast-track his desire to improve the lot of lawyers.

Wali (SAN) said he inaugurated the committees because their strategic nature does not permit them to wait till November when the association will inaugurate her committees at its National Executive Committee( NEC) meeting in Asaba, Delta State.

Others are the Legislative Advocacy Working Group which has Chief Paul Erokoro (SAN) as Chairman, Chief Arthur Obi Okafor, alternate Chairman and Elachi Agada, Secertary.

In a chat with The Nation, Wali said: “We expect the committees to hit the ground running, we have to inaugurate them out of order as we felt they are committees that cannot wait till November when other committees will be inaugurated in Asaba, as a result of the importance which we attach to the Constitutional Review Committee.

He went on:“Of course you know National Assembly matters are going on, they are not waiting for you to inaugurate your committees in November and so they need to get involved very urgently.

“The welfare trust fund is new and so there is no foundation for it. Therefore, they will need to start earlier than other committees that will be inaugurated in Asaba so that they can achieve what we have set for them to achieve within this limited period of two years.”

On whether the committee is an Ad hoc or Standing committee, Wali (SAN) said: “It is a standing committee, the welfare trust committee is a policy making body. They will make policies that will be implemented by the welfare committee which is headed by the Second Vice-President of the Bar. Because it is a policy making body, their scope is wider than the ordinary welfare issues. They will look at the insurance policy for lawyers, micro-finance bank proposal, social welfare and facilities for young lawyers. So, the earlier they start, the better for us because there is so much for them to do”

In a chat with The Nation, Paul Erokoro (SAN) said: “ Expect a vibrant and active committee that will do its best to push the Justice Sector Reforms bills in the National Assembly and other public interest bills.”

Fielding questions on the exact number of such bills in the National Assembly, Erokoro said: “Well there are a number of bills that have been before the National Assembly for years. While some survived the past legislature, some did not. So, we hope to revive all of those bills that were not able to scale the hurdle of the previous legislative years. We want to see how we can bring them back.”

Erokoro said: “Certainly, it is time we did something about Prison Reform bill, Legal Practitioners’ Act and the Justice Sector Reform bills, there are a lot of bills that are so important to Nigerians”

Chief Njemanze (SAN) said: “Well I believe the task is fastidious but we can surmount the challenges. We believe in the next 10 months, we should be able to start implementing some of the policies that we intend to recommend to Mr. President and the NEC”.

“We believe the Bar should have a welfare package for all its members. We believe lawyers should be insured and we should equally have a pension scheme for all the lawyers. These are workable things, it is just for us to sit down, look at the papers, contact experts in these fields and we will be able to bring out something for the Bar.

On whether they the took some strategic decisions at the inaugural meeting of the committee, Njemanze said: “ Yes, we did, we have basically agreed on the modalities for our meetings and how to make inputs on all the terms of reference. We have agreed that each member should make his input in writing and send to the secretary within 14 days, so that when we meet next we shall use all the inputs as working paper for the committee”

Chief Alegeh (SAN) said: “We have decided on how to get the Bar to get the Digital Bar Initiative Identity card which will be an ID card that may also have financial features on it. We believe when we get it, every lawyer that has it will be certified to be a lawyer and no fake lawyer will be able to get that card. If we achieve this, I think we have achieved a lot.”